report of the action team on global navigation satellite systems (gnss)

2. EGNOS169. As previously mentioned, EGNOS (European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service)is <strong>the</strong> forerunner <strong>of</strong> GALILEO and <strong>the</strong> first contribution <strong>of</strong> Europe to multimodal global satellitenavigation. The project started in 1995 by <strong>the</strong> European Commission, ESA and <strong>the</strong> EuropeanOrganisation for <strong>the</strong> Safety <strong>of</strong> Air Navigation (Eurocontrol) and is supported by several serviceproviders with <strong>the</strong>ir own investments.170. Currently, EGNOS has reached initial operational capability. An experimental service isavailable in an area covering Europe 2 and has been successfully tested in road, aviation andmaritime navigation since 2001. Some demonstration activities have been performed and o<strong>the</strong>rsare planned to be conducted outside Europe (e.g. Middle East, Latin America, Africa, <strong>the</strong>People’s Republic <strong>of</strong> China). It comprises a space segment <strong>of</strong> two Inmarsat transponders (AOR,IOR) and <strong>the</strong> newly launched Artemis geostationary satellite. The ground segment includes anumber <strong>of</strong> reference stations (RIMS) in Europe and beyond, a processing centre and uplinkfacilities.171. The system will be fully operational by 2004. EGNOS will complement GPS and <strong>the</strong>Russian GLONASS systems in order to provide civil service to European citizens. It warns <strong>the</strong>users <strong>of</strong> system malfunctions <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> GPS and GLONASS constellations by broadcasting on <strong>the</strong>L1 frequency band integrity signals on <strong>the</strong> health <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> two constellations. The provision <strong>of</strong> thisquality control service (integrity) is essential for safety critical applications.172. EGNOS will also improve <strong>the</strong> accuracy <strong>of</strong> GPS and GLONASS by means <strong>of</strong> differentialcorrections. The correction data will improve <strong>the</strong> accuracy <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> current services from about 20meters to better than 5 meters.173. Besides its own specific operational objective as <strong>the</strong> European SBAS, EGNOS is aunique instrument to gain experience not only in <strong>the</strong> development <strong>of</strong> GNSS technology but also,most importantly, in <strong>the</strong> operational introduction <strong>of</strong> GALILEO services.174. The ICAO international SBAS (Satellite Based Augmentation System) standardsguarantee <strong>the</strong> interoperability <strong>of</strong> EGNOS and <strong>the</strong> two o<strong>the</strong>r inter-regional augmentation systemsMSAS and WAAS at user level. EGNOS will serve not only aviation but also o<strong>the</strong>r transport andnon-transport applications.175. EGNOS is an example <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> European commitment to interoperability with alreadyexisting systems.3. WAAS176. The Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) has been developed by <strong>the</strong> United StatesFederal Aviation Administration (FAA) to augment <strong>the</strong> GPS SPS navigation signal. The systemhas been operational for non-safety <strong>of</strong> life since August 2000 and has been widely used byapplications such as agriculture. It is estimated that <strong>the</strong>re are over 1 million users in <strong>the</strong>agricultural field alone in <strong>the</strong> United States. In July 2003, <strong>the</strong> FAA commissioned <strong>the</strong> system for2 Egnos Test Bed data 2. Oct 200233